Patriarch Sviatoslav: Moscow Patriarchate Not Ready for Dialogue

According to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav, the dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate and UGCC is necessary but “not in order for one side to make some sacrifices, for in that case, it will never happen.” So stated the patriarch in an in terview to Galinfo.

“We live at the time when such meetings should not become something sensational, meetings of compromises, giving up or gaining positions. In my opinion, such meetings will exactly serve to get to know each other, remove certain prejudices existing as remnants of the past. Such meetings are badly needed to heal our wounds of the past. Therefore, at one time, His Beatitude John Paul II and now, the Holy Father Benedict XVI made numerous statements of readiness for such meetings,” noted Patriarch Sviatoslav.”

In particular, the head of UGCC noted that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church wears in its body many wounds inflicted by the Lviv pseudo-sobor which resulted in the proclamation of the liquidation of this Church by the Stalin’s regime. “Obviously, such meetings will help us to make the way for mutual reconciliation. For without the mutual reconciliation, healing of our memory, I can see no healthy and constructive future,” noted the hierarch.

However, according to Patriarch Sviatoslav, Moscow Patriarchate now shows “complete unpreparedness for such meetings.”